Runaways
by Zombie Raptor
Summary: Alibaba is leaving Qishan, and runs into a girl who is running away as well. He couldn't help but help her.


Alibaba sighed as he twirled his dagger. He didn't particularly have much to do. He was planning on leaving the city soon. He'd gotten into a fair amount of trouble within the city, from giving the wine to the plant, to messing with the some of the lords, albeit not on purpose. At least there were only a few people that would recognize his face.

Eventually Alibaba got up and left his house, if it could even really be called that. After making sure he was ready, he left the city. Rolling along the road, Alibaba thought about where he would go. Somewhere with trees and grass would be nice. Maybe find a nice wife, make a modest living, perhaps he could even head back home. Maybe he had been forgotten.

Alibaba shrugged off the thought. It wasn't like he was in a hurry. "I just wanna live a nice quiet life in peace" he muttered to himself. Honestly Qishan wasn't really a place he wanted to be, it just happened to be the place that he ended up. He did actually happen to own the cart, but the horses were something that he happened to, at least as he likes to say, borrowed. He had customize the cart so he could smuggle things for people, but it hadn't really come in handy in the recent months. He found that finding people that needed things smuggling was a lot harder than it sounded at first, though still possible and they paid well.

After an hour or so, Alibaba saw a girl walking along the cart. It looked like she was using it for shade. Hearing metal, he saw the chains on her legs. Slavery was one thing that he hated. He accepted that someone could be cruel, ignorant, greedy, hateful, and pretty much anything else, but when it came to any of those people owning a human being, it just felt wrong to him. Simply because they thought that they were better than other people meant that they could own said people.

"Excuse me miss, do you want to ride in the cart?" Alibaba asked politely.

The girl looked up at him with a glare. As she looked at him, she was trying to figure out what to make of the offer. Was he mocking her, it was pretty obvious that she was a slave. Most people had resigned to letting slaves be slaves, even if they thought it was wrong. Maybe he was going to sell her. She wasn't in a position to put up a fight. She was hungry, dehydrated,and she could barely make a fist. The only reason she wasn't burned to hell was because when she ran away, she had taken the first object she saw that would protect her from the sun, which happened to be a small blanket, and it wasn't the easiest thing to use to keep the sun off of her skin for extended periods of time.

"Miss, there are some people coming in the distance. You can tell because they are obviously riding fast and are kicking up a dust cloud. I'm just taking a guess that they are here for you"

The girl wanted to cry. She had gotten this far, and had endured a lot to get here, but now the men sent to capture her were right behind her. The man on the cart offered her his hand, and gave off a bright smile. The worst that could happen is that he gives her up to the men, possibly for a reward, or he keeps her as his slave. Although at best she could be free, which was worth the risk of becoming the slave of an even worse master.

The men on the horses had caught up with Alibaba's cart. "You" the leader of the horse riders called out rudely "Have you seen a girl with red hair and pink eyes?"

"Ah, is it that slave, chains on her ankles and such?" Alibaba asked curiously. The leader nodded. "Well unfortunately she took off. I gave her some water, after all no one needs a dead slave, especially one as pretty as her" Alibaba said with a small chuckle, followed by a few chuckles from the men. "But as soon as she had enough, she knocked me off my horse and stole some of my water. She was remarkably strong"

The leader cleared his throat "You understand that we have to check your car right. She's quite a valuable slave, and I could understand someone trying to take her as their own"

"Of course sir, but well I should let you know that this cart was this way when I purchased it, it was apparently used for smuggling for some reason" Alibaba told them. Smuggling was a crime and if they found out about it on their own it could mean trouble for him, even if there wasn't anything in there. "There are area's under the seat in the back that can be used to hide things"

The leader, however, already knew to look for these. After taking a quick look around and inside the cart, the men determined that the girl wasn't there. They quickly thanked Alibaba and took off down the path. Alibaba sighed in relief after they were gone.

"Morgiana unlock it and I'll let you out" Alibaba said. After hearing a small click from under the drivers seat, Alibaba got up and opened to the top. "You ok, you were in there for quite a while, and I know it can get uncomfortable"

Morgiana nodded. The seat the she was hiding in was locked from the inside. The only way to open it was to unlock it from the bottom, and then unlock the top.

"Why are you helping me so much" Morgiana asked as she took the apple that Alibaba offered her.

"Well, it's not like I'm doing this for free. I expect to get something from you" he told her. Morgiana's eyes shifted down a bit. She thought as much. People rarely helped others for free, and that was doubly so when it came to slaves. "I need a traveling companion. If you wanna go anywhere just say so, I haven't actually decided where I want to go yet" Alibaba told her happily.

Morgiana gaped a bit. She hadn't met anyone like that. Someone who could look past the fact that she was a slave and try to help her. After a few minutes, Alibaba sighed "Look, this happened a few months ago I probably wouldn't have helped you. I'm just not in a great place with some of the higher ups of the city. If I was, I'd probably be to worried about myself to help you. I guess when I helped that little girl and her mother, it also made me grow a conscience"

Morgiana tilted her head. She vaguely recalled something about what he said. "Wait, did you kick down a bunch of barrels of wine to get the girl back from a man-eating flower?"

Alibaba looked at her a bit surprised "Yeah how did you know?"

"The fat man serves my mast... former master. He said something about a 'blathering blonde idiot' that hit him and wasted all of his wine 'on a little runt'" Morgiana said, using air quotes. "My ma-former master took his frustration out on me after that" she said smiling.

"I feel terrible. Why are you smiling about that?"

"I was planning on running away at some point, but I lashed out when my former master was beating me and so I escaped then. You inadvertently caused my master to beat me that day, which made me run away onto this road the same day as you. If you hadn't been here I probably would have been caught by those men"

Alibaba smiled "I guess we're both lucky then" he told her. Morgiana tilted her head. She was someone whom he given food and precious water, not to mention he'd have to lie to people about her since she used to be a slave. "Look, I'm not going to lie that you're trouble" Alibaba told her. Morgiana looked away, feeling a bit guilty "But having a travel companion is nice and I'm not a very trusting person. I know you won't screw me over because you'll be endangering yourself by doing so"

"That isn't a very good base for a relationship" Morgiana said softly.

"Maybe not, but this way we both benefit. I'll take care of you, and you'll provide companionship. Hopefully given time it will grow into good friendship and we will know that we can rely on one another" Alibaba told her happily.

Morgiana squinted, looking down the road "It looks like they're coming back" she commented. Both of them stood up and Alibaba opened the lid "Make sure the seat locks" he told her. She replied with a nod and the lock clicked automatically when he put down the seat.

Morgiana was a bit split. She completely trusted Alibaba at this point. He was kind, he given her resources that were quite precious in the desert, and had helped her hide from the men. She did, however, feel a bit sad that he didn't trust her, although he had no reason to.

Alibaba sighed as the men came into view. They were the same men that had passed him earlier. As the men reached his position, they slowed down.

"I guess you didn't find her?" Alibaba asked smiling and scratching the back of his head. Normally he wouldn't have talked to them, but they had already pulled up next to his cart.

The leader sighed "Nope. We don't have the resources to go out any further. Didn't think that someone would be able to get this far in the desert on foot. Even a fanalis" he explained. Noticing the glance that Alibaba was giving him, the leader sighed "I'm just not too keen on going back and telling Lord Jamil that I failed"

Alibaba gave an apologetic smile "Yes, I'm glad I'm not the one telling him. Although I do feel a bit bad for that slave. The leader raised an eyebrow. "Well either she runs out into the desert and dies horribly of dehydration and sunburned, or she would have to face Lord Jamil's wrath. I can't help but feel sorry for any living thing that has one of those to roads ahead of them"

The leader nodded. He knew since they were sent out quite a bit later than when the slave escaped Lord Jamil wouldn't blame them too much, not to mention the slave was a fanalis. Although that also made it worse since the slave was so valuable. Right as he was about to round up his group to leave, he heard a sneeze.

"There wouldn't happen to be anyone under that seat of yours would there?" the leader asked slowly.

"Of course not, see" Alibaba said, standing up and tugging on the seat.

"Smugglers can be quite creative, so you wouldn't mind if I just poke this sword through the seat" the leader asked. Alibaba froze. There was no way he was getting out of this.

Morgiana couldn't quite make out what they saying. After the sneeze, she had taken her shirt and quickly wrapped it around her head to keep her breathing quite. While she did have exceptional senses, all she could hear was her heartbeat.

"Listen boy. We'll let you go, all you have to do is give us the girl. If you don't, we'll let Lord Jamil decide what to do with you" the leader said smiling.

Alibaba looked up and counted the people. There were five armed men on horses, with swords, and crossbows. The leader of the group also happens to have some knives on him. Suitable to throw, but no doubt used to stab someone in a crowd.

Alibaba nodded. Standing up on the cart he quickly pulled out his dagger and slashed the man's throat. Taking a throwing knife, he threw it at the first man who pulled out his crossbow. The other three men quickly dismounted and ran towards Alibaba, who at this point had gotten off the cart.

Morgiana eyes widened when she heard the clashing of metal outside. '_This is my fault, I have to protect him_' she cried out mentally, as she fiddled with the latches. Normally she would have just punched through the wood, but the space was tight and she didn't have the room.

After getting the latch open, she burst out of the compartment and jumped onto the ground only to see five dead bodies around Alibaba. Running up, Morgiana knocked him to the ground with a bone-breaking hug. Alibaba smiled and patted her on the back.

"Come on, help me strip these guys for anything useful"

Morgiana nodded. After a few minutes, anything useful on the men was put in the cart and the bodies were tossed to the side of the road. "Why didn't you give me to them? They probably would of let you go if you did" Morgiana asked.

"Right thing to do I guess" Alibaba muttered. All Alibaba knew was that he felt a large moral obligation not to give Morgiana over to the men.

"They probably would have raped me before taking me back" Morgiana said softly.

"Why bring that up, I already took care up them" Alibaba said feeling slightly uncomfortable.

Morgiana dropped to her knees and put her head to the ground "Please let me protect you once I get my strength back"

Alibaba smiled softly "How 'bout partners. I'll protect you and you protect me" he said holding his hand out. Morgiana looked up with a smile on her face and nodded, accepting his help up. "Try not to cry, it'll waste water" Alibaba teased.

After they set off, Alibaba eyed Morgiana. Eventually after a few minutes nudged her with his elbow. "Were you ever, you know about what you said they would do earlier" he asked, uncomfortably.

Morgiana shook her head "He molested me several times, but it never went beyond touching. He always had women around him and he said he'd give me the 'pleasure' once I grew up a bit"

"So why did you think that they would" Alibaba asked, still avoiding the word.

"The only reason I wasn't was because I was Jamil's bodyguard. I probably would have been raped if I wasn't" she replied calmly.

Alibaba chuckled "All my reasons seem so petty compared to yours. I feel kinda pathetic"

Alibaba smiled when Morgiana stayed silent. He put his arm around her shoulder protectively "I guess now I have something to fight for. You're making me less pathetic by just being here" he said light heartedly, trying to move away from the more depressing things he had brought up earlier.

Morgiana smiled and leaned against Alibaba. This was the first time that she could remember in which she truly wanted something from the bottom of her heart. She'd even become a slave again as long as she'd be in Alibaba's possession. She was a bit curious of why she felt this strongly. Perhaps it was because he was the first person to really care about her, but she didn't put too much thought into this. All that mattered was that he was currently holding her, and there was no one else to bother them.


End file.
